Fremantle to Augusta

The threatening skies encouraged us to get up early and we managed to pack up before the rain started. Drove out of Fremantle and into some really heavy rain which obscured our vision and made driving on the motorway lots of fun! We stopped for a wet morning tea at Preston Beach, where we caught our first glimpse of the bright blue Splendid Fairywren. We ticked over 20 000 kms just north of Bunbury. This is one bloody huge country! Ella washed the windscreen as we filled up in Bunbury and soon had a queue of people asking if she would clean theirs as well! Perhaps we are being too narrow-minded thinking of busking as our only source of revenue!

We continued on to Busselton and found the newly renovated jetty and eventually, the caravan park. A quick setup while it wasn't raining was achieved with a minimum of fuss and we headed back out for a late lunch at the jetty foreshore. Busselton Jetty is 1.8kms long and we were pleased we had invested in new rain and wind proof coats. The Underwater Observatory was booked out, but we were just as happy wandering along the jetty, enjoying the exhilarating weather and the scenery.

Ella wanted to take the ducks with us the next morning. They had a lovely time waddling around and eating our bread - there was no toast for the humans! On the road by 9, we headed towards Cape Naturaliste and the lighthouse there. Our guide took us up the 57 steps and explained the lighthouse workings to us. It was automated in the 1970s but prior to that the Lighthouse keepers used to have to run the light with kerosene (hand pumped up to the top level) and then do a further workout by winding the pulley and weight system to turn the 3 tonnes of light mechanism. The Keepers must have been very fit! He took us out onto the viewing deck where it was breezy, a lovely day by local standards! Leon said he'd done tours for 8 years and had only ever seen the anemometer still twice! From the viewing deck we managed to see a couple of whales and some kangaroos - not all in the ocean!

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

                                             

Sugarloaf rock was nearby. In bad weather, apparently the waves crash into it with such violence that the spray flies over the top - one and a half times the height of the lighthouse! We took our guide's recommendation and drove the coastal road to Eagle Bay and Meelup Beach on the way back to Dunsborough. Meelup Beach was so fantastic we got our lunch supplies and doubled back to have a picnic there. It was a glorious day (still windy, but warm!) and the water was far too inviting to pass up, so Ella and Lachlan spent the whole afternoon swimming while Jackson and Marcus swam in between building a huge siege castle, complete with armaments. There was unanimous agreement that Meelup is the loveliest beach we have seen so far.

Meelup Beach - a fantastic spot!

We stayed until quite late before starting the drive south to Augusta. The picturesque countryside was complete with fat cattle and Ella was very impressed. "Oooh! We haven't seen cows for a long time!" We also hadn't seen trees for a long time and the Karri and Marri forests were utterly captivating in the fading evening light. Storm clouds gathered as we drove along and it wasn't long before it was pelting down, heavy rain mixing with hail as the temperature dropped alarmingly. We arrived at the campground in Augusta and it was dark, raining heavily and freezing cold. We sat in the caravan for a while until the rain was more a drizzle than a deluge and then quickly put the tent up. The Oz-tent is worth its weight in gold - up and completely dry in a couple of minutes! Those left inside the caravan were busy with pots and bowls under all the dripping leaks! After a hastily put together hot meal the world seemed a better place, although Marcus was not impressed that his bedding and pillow were soaked. He slept curled around a bowl, catching more drips!

Stay tuned ...

Fun in Fremantle comes to an end

Leeuwin II leaving Fremantle

Thursday morning was rainy and cool and spent rehearsing some new songs for busking before the clamouring to go to Scitech became too loud! We headed towards Perth, but stopped to have lunch at the harbour in Fremantle. We ended up exploring Challenger Harbour and were thrilled to see Leeuwin II heading out to sea. Tall Ships are incredibly romantic as they skim the waves. We could almost imagine ourselves in Fremantle in the 1800s.

The Roundhouse 1831

Wandering around the foreshore we also came across the Round House which is WA's oldest public building. It was opened in 1831 and used as a prison. Unfortunately we were just too late for the 1 o'clock cannon firing! And just too early to bump into Tim Winton on his daily walk with his dog.

Amazing view down High Street

After dallying at the Roundhouse we had to postpone our visit to Scitech as Vasko had finished Jackson's accordion. Heavy rain started as we entered the Freeway and it took us nearly 2 hours to get there and back. Vasko had completely overhauled the accordion and Jackson was thrilled with the result. The boys were talking about the coin given to the Queen and how she didn't really need the money. Ella, in her usual wise fashion, said "I just don't get the Queen. It's just one family and no other families get a turn. Is that why you're a Pelican Mummy?" HUH? Oh, a Republican!! There has been a lot of Republican debate on the radio and I think her ears must be full of sand. (Note to self: book hearing test for Ella upon our return home!)

Sparks in his element - feeling very positive as the
presenter is stealing his electrons!

On Friday morning we made the alarming discovery that we hadn't booked an extra night. I raced off to the office at 8 a.m. to extend our stay, only to find that we had to move to another site. That put paid to our busking plans but we managed to get set up in between showers. The promised Scitech visit had the kids highly excited. We arrived at 12 and spent a fabulous 4 hours investigating all the hands on science and technology exhibits.

Jackson on the phone! He won't
need a mobile now!

Plasma Ball Power

Marcus was chosen to be part of the High Voltage Electricity Show and we all really enjoyed Cosmic Collisions in the Planetarium, where Jackson answered lots of the questions and I realised that he has retained far more of Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything than I. We thought Scitech was open until 5 and the kids were absolutely gutted when it closed at 4. Marcus said he would like to spend at least 2 years there! Fish n chips in Fremantle called us as we drove back. Cicerello's (est. 1903) was right on the water and reminded us very much of our evening with you in Mangonui, Bob and Yvonne. The Restaurant has recently been featured on an Australian Post stamp issue celebrating iconic Australian tourist destinations.

Cicerello's at Fisherman's Wharf

Our third tour of Fremantle Prison was the Torchlight Tour. They had a few actors hidden away at appropriate junctures and the guy who jumped out of Solitary Confinement gave us a start. He asked Ella if she'd knocked off a sweet shop on her tricycle! In the Commissariat an Irish troublemaker jumped out at us and demanded to know who had the keys. Dead silence. "Who has 'em?" ... and Lachie couldn't take it anymore and pointed to our guide. He then got berated for being a snitch. Ella was hiding under my black jumper with a hood and looked like a mini Grim Reaper as we wandered around the gallows and morgue.

Torchlight Tour

Front Entrance of the Prison

Stay tuned ...

Fun in Freo

Cell Blocks at Fremantle Prison

Fun in Freo was our motto after our hard work busking, so we headed off to the World Heritage listed Fremantle Prison on Monday morning. (After I had done 3 loads of washing, including all our costumes!) The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s to house WA's influx of convicts and Ticket of Leave men as they arrived in the colony to be put to work building the city's infrastructure. The first inhabitants were incarcerated in the building in 1855 and the last in 1991!

And which of you would like to demonstrate
the use of the toilet bucket?

Our guide had fun with the kids, treating them like convicts: getting them to line up, enter cells and walk in silence from number to number in the exercise yard. He played a trick on them there, asking them to walk to number 6. As 6 and 16 both have superstitious connotations with the hangman's noose, neither numbers were used. Jackson strolled over to stand between 5 and 7 and Marcus used his fingers to convert 9 into 6. In one of the exercise yards, one crim had helpfully painted instructions on how to remove ATMs from a wall. Once the prison opened to the public there was a rash of ATM robberies, so they had to paint over his artwork! Damn! With busking and ATMs, we could have continued travelling indefinitely!

And on the Menu tonight ... kids in the kitchen

The tour was captivating and we unanimously decided to come back on another day to do The Great Escapes tour. We also unanimously decided that we were hungry and exhausted, so we had a late picnic lunch at The Esplanade, a wonderful old park on the waterfront. Ella and Lachlan had a great time playing on the spiderweb while the rest of us investigated our inner eyelids under a shady tree. It was not hard to convince the kids to go to bed early that night.

You could see Rottnest Island from
up there!

Since CHOGM was over, Tuesday was Perth sightseeing day. Our first task was to drive to Osborne Park to buy the front part for the tent, which we need now we are striking some weather. It was not far to King's Park where there is a wonderful panoramic view from the top of the aptly named DNA Tower. The kids were very keen to spend some time in the Synergy Playground there, which is full of dinosaur models and information about the earth's prehistory.

Despite his appearance, this guy is not related to
that croc we found in Normanton!

GOLD! - The Perth Mint

The Perth Mint was next on the agenda. While we were waiting for our guided tour, we played "The Most Expensive Item" game in the showroom. I won, finding a tiny Pink Argyle Diamond worth $285 000. Jackson was quizzing the security guard and found that a coin worth $5 million was given to the Queen during CHOGM. We discovered that the 26 largest gold nuggets ever found have all been found in Australia. We also discovered that a gold bar couldn't be lifted with one hand by any of us except Dave and that as a family, we would be worth $9 250 000 if our combined weight was a lump of gold! The tour included the pouring of a gold bar which was amazing to watch. They have melted and poured the same gold bar close to 33 000 times in the 17 years of tours in the Mint.

Jackson's photo of the Bell Tower

We finished our sightseeing at The Bell Tower along the river in the city. The tower is a result of an architectural competition and the building was a gift to WA during the Bicentennial year.

A quick stop in Fremantle to replace our aged rainjackets gave the kids much excitement - now we can have 6 Ninjas in photos! Be warned. After all that, we were pleased to return to camp.

The Main Entrance to the Prison

We returned to Fremantle Prison for the Great Escapes Tour on Wednesday morning. Brendan Abbott, The Postcard Bandit, escaped from here before continuing his bank robberies across several states. The funniest escape story was an unintended escape from an inmate who was due to be paroled the next day. The authorities were trying to find work to keep him occupied and put some scaffolding up against the prison wall and gave him a bucket of cement to repair the top of the wall. He overbalanced and fell 5 metres onto Hampton Road, jumped up and ran around to knock on the front gate. The guard slammed the door in his face, saying "Mate, this is a prison". His frantic knocking was eventually rewarded with access back into the prison, as the guard eventually noticed that he was wearing the prison greens!

Razor wire

In one escape, the prisoners made a phone, rang the guard in
the tower and told him there was trouble left while they
escaped right!

East Fremantle was our lunch spot and we walked along the Swan River, where we saw 2 dolphins. Drove back to camp to get our togs then had a drive south. We stopped at Coogee Beach for a swim and had a very relaxing evening on the beach, despite the threatening storm. Ella sculpted our family in sand, including the cats! The storm hit just as we left the beach, but the fly and the new front panel kept our tent nice and dry.

Bonnie, Clyde, boys, Ella, Mum looking glam and Dad

Coogee Beach before the storm

We are staying on for another couple of days in Freo. We hope to do another busk at the markets and the kids are very excited to be booked on the scary torchlight tour of the Prison on Friday night!

Stay tuned ...

Brilliant Busking in Freo

The Fremantle Markets are open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we went down on Friday morning to try the personal approach for busking permission. Finally, a friendly place that encourages buskers - there are no licencing requirements. Yeehah! We booked a timeslot and bolted back to get costumed and pack up our instruments. We busked from 11-12 with great success, so booked in timeslots for Saturday and Sunday before we left.

We decided to complete the Maritime Museum experience and take a tour on the Ovens Submarine, so headed over to the Quay again. Half of the CHOGM delegates had the same idea - there were important looking folk doing their important walks surrounded by men in suits with earpieces trying to look inconspicuous. Very amusing. The kids were disappointed that they didn't see the Queen! I was not terribly surprised that we didn't recognise anyone.

Ovens submarine - big on the outside but tiny inside!

The sub tour was fascinating, although I had a moment of panic when we descended into the sub, imagining the hatches closing and sinking into the water! Our guide was ex-Navy and sure did know his submarines! We managed to get through without bumping our heads (much) but it was amazing to consider the 70 men living and working inside for weeks at a time. Space is at such a premium that one lucky guy got to sleep on top of the torpedo! The Captain's cabin was even smaller than Captain Cook's on the Endeavour!

Glad to be back in the fresh air!

Jackson emulating the Torpedo Tubes

Exploring the rest of the Maritime Museum easily filled the rest of the afternoon and we had to drag the kids out just before it closed. It is design built and jam-packed with boats, yachts and fabulously interesting things. The Australia II was there in all its glory, along with that appalling Australia jacket that Bob Hawke wore when he declared "Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum" after we won the 1983 America's Cup!

Busking was our first appointment on Saturday. We did the same timeslot and had just opened the music case when a lady came over to make a donation. We told her she was brave, having not heard a note, but she stayed for the entire set. At the end, she came over to say how much she loved our music and the kids and gave us $50!! We had a break before doing another set to give our jaws time to close. It was heaps of fun and we were drawing large crowds. Lunch at the markets is always a welcome change from sandwiches and Ella enjoyed choc coated strawberries from a stall directly opposite our busking pitch. The guy told Ella that she could just point tomorrow and he would bring her one! We went back to camp to unpack and got changed to go and visit my Uni friends Graham and Suzy and their girls. Ella was very excited to have some girl company and the 6 kids had a great time playing table tennis, jumping on the tramp, riding bikes and scooters and playing with the Wii while we had a lovely evening catching up on twenty or so years!

A Flooney - wants to join the Hermits!

We busked again on Sunday morning. It went well - apart from the sticky key on the accordion rearing its ugly head again. The kids are really hitting their stride now and are all even singing! The strawberry man from yesterday remembered his promise to Ella and she was delivered a choc-coated strawberry skewer. Another lady in a stall told the kids that listening to our music made her really happy and then donated a Flooney to them all. An American Indian guy stayed through both sets, singing along and adding some fantastic body percussion as well. He said he loved what we were doing and we thanked him for his additions. He took Ella over to his wife's stall for a free pair of earrings, apologising to the boys that he didn't have any jewellery suitable for them. As well as all this largesse, we are also making quite good money. We walked away from our 5 sets at the markets with almost $900! Just as well, as everything costs more than we had originally budgeted for. I went and thanked the manager of the markets and she issued an open invitation for our return. A manager of a nearby bar also gave us her card for a gig there, which we won't have time to do.

Ella's Flooney and Friends Band

After unpacking, we headed out to Alexander Heights, map in hand, to meet Vasko the Accordion Fix-it Man. He is a recent immigrant from Russia and is filling a niche market in accordion repair! We left Jackson's accordion with him for a full service and repair, which should take most of the week. Heading to Joondalup for dinner with my cousin, we got comprehensively lost, as the map suddenly decided not to name any streets. Fortunately Wendy was an excellent phone navigator and we made it to their place with only a few tight-lipped exchanges! We have needed that GPS a couple of times on the trip, Pete & Carey. On the whole though, we think the camera was the better option!  We had a fantastic evening with Wendy & Rob. The kids had a ball playing with their second cousin Jared. They also enjoyed being in a house, Basil Brush (the dog), non-plastic plates, toys, sharp knives and being in a house.

The boys with Jared and his nerf gun collection!

Stay tuned ...

Shipwrecks and HMB Endeavour

Captain Pelsaert's Cabin

Our first day in Fremantle dawned clear after the heavy rain all night. Ella was terrified during the storm, but fortunately was in the Blunderbuss with Jackson, who managed to calm her down and get her back to sleep! Our first mission was to buy a map to avoid further mishap. That done, we headed to the huge marina to check out the yachts and then into the Shipwrecks Galleries at the Maritime Museum. The Batavia - or what was left of her - was displayed there and we all enjoyed delving into the story and the artefacts again.

Endeavour in Victoria Quay

We were very happy to discover that we had finally caught the Endeavour, berthed in Fremantle. We missed it in Brisbane just before we left and we have been just missing it in ports ever since as it circumnavigates Australia for the first time! After we finished at the Shipwreck Galleries, we drove to Victoria Quay to take a tour of Captain Cook's ship. It was fantastic! The ship was smaller than we had imagined, with the mid-shipman's deck added into the existing ship and subsequently a little over a metre high. The doors to the tiny cabins were Ella sized. It was almost impossible to imagine the 94 sailors, soldiers and scientists on board in such a tiny ship for 3 years!

Ella could barely fit through the cabin door!

Jackson is glad he is not a marine living in this space!

We are thinking of installing one of these
into the Blunderbuss!

Jackson at the helm

As usual, there have been no replies to our phone calls re. busking at the markets, but we had a rehearsal anyway on our return to camp.

Stay tuned ..

To Perth, via the Pinnacles

It was hosing down as we were trying to pack up in Green Head. That was a new experience - and not a fun one! The rain forced us to cancel our planned Wildflower Loop Drive but we did persevere and drove in to the Pinnacles. We had morning tea in the Blunderbuss waiting for the rain to clear and dashed across to the Interpretive Centre when it didn't. We enjoyed the information as we dripped our way around the displays. The Pinnacles are a very recent geological formation - about 6000 years old - and no-one really knows how they formed. The two main formation theories proposed are both controversial,  the kids were interested to discover.

Ninjas in the Pinnacles

The rain stopped after we unhitched the caravan to drive the narrow track through the Pinnacles. The golden rocks and surrounding sand were an extreme colour change from the red landscape we have become used to. The wet sand of course was tracked through the Blunderbuss as well, so all our gear was suddenly, grittily, golden. We returned to the carpark where the Jayco was faithfully waiting for our return, after joking about arriving in Perth without it!

"Don't forget the caravan, Dad!"

Who ate all the pies?

We were all cold so we bought our first pies for lunch and the boys were very excited to try Pie Sandwiches, a la Masterchef Gonz. Even without Tomato Sauce, they thought it was not bad! Ella decided that a sausage roll sandwich wouldn't really be the same!

Black Boys everywhere!

Travelling the rest of the Indian Ocean Drive towards Joondalup, we were amazed to see thousands of black boys in flower.

It was a very stressful drive into Perth and Fremantle without a map. We got off the Freeway too early and ended up ensnared in central Fremantle, where one turn led us into a dead end with no room to turn. With Jackson giving his excellent reversing directions to Dave as he wended back onto the main road, I found myself directing heavy Fremantle traffic to stop and wait for us! I can report that although the woman in the front car was quite accommodating (and rather startled!), road rage in the backed up cars was alive and well! The Queen was arriving at the Perth airport at the same time as we were changing Fremantle's traffic arrangements. We could have done with one of the police escorts!

Eventually we found our caravan park and set up quickly as a storm was threatening. It was raining during the evening, but there was a huge thunderstorm during the night, with one clap of thunder directly above us and loud enough to scare the bejesus out of us all!

So, we have arrived in Perth (or Fremantle, to be accurate) and we'd better hit the op shops for some crazy outfits so we fit in with all the CHOGM delegates. Marcus figures he'll pick up some leadership tips for his School Captain application, but the Queen hasn't replied to his email!

Stay tuned ...

Fishing at Green Head

SCOREBOARD

Church Family vs. Fish at Green Head

  0                          3     

NINJAs go fishing ... but they are not so ninja at catching anything!

FISHING Leaderboard:

Lachlan - 13 undersize fish, including 3 puffer fish

Dave - 2 grunter and a sole

Ella - half a large snub-nosed dart

Jackson - one yellow fin bream and a squid jig

Marcus - half a snub-nosed dart, a bait fish (thrown into the air) and (debatable) 2 octopus which let go when they were near shore

Kerrie - zilch (lack of effort)

Rugby Final day, Sunday, was a rest day. Time for Monopoly, reading, fishing and of course, the Rugby. Fortunately the All Blacks were victorious, as Dave had threatened to jump into Dynamite Bay if they didn't win. And I still can't reverse the caravan. Not that I'm trying to. Why have a dog and bark yourself? Ella finished Harry Potter 5 with a whoop and a cheer, so the mispronunciations and the "Harry is in big trouble" come to an end for a while.

Storm heading our way while fishing

Monday was much the same, with more unsuccessful fishing. Although we did see a sea lion, his whiskery face peering at us (laughing, I think!) before he disappeared under the waves. We also saw a huge ray swim past before the storm hit and we bolted back to camp.

Ella and I retired to the tent to listen to the rain pitter patter while the boys crowded around the computer screen to watch the Rugby, posted online 24 hours after the match. No-one has missed having a TV with the exception of missing the live Rugby coverage!

Rodred the Thin in action

Our last day of R&R, Tuesday, was similar again. We decided to attempt to catch a fish one more time, although Jackson was happy to stay with his Lego programme on the computer. We went to the same headland, hoping to see some more sea lions, but no luck. An enormous ray swam past again, bigger than the last one. Marcus was excited to have two octopus on his line, but both times the octopus came in close and then let go of the bait, sending a disgusted jet of water at Marcus up the cliff!

We were enjoying the fishing but again the rain set in. That fly we bought for the tent is getting a good work out. Our timing of the purchase couldn't have been better.

Looks like it will be our first wet pack up to depart for Perth tomorrow.

Stay tuned ...